US Congress to debate sale of Boeing planes to Tehran

A Boeing 747 commercial plane of KLM airline lands at Shipol airport behind spectators watching the European Athletics Championships at the Olympic stadium in Amsterdam on July 6, 2016. (AFP)

The United States Republican-controlled Congress is set to block Boeing Co's planned sale of dozens of commercial aircraft to Iran.

The House of Representatives was to debate an anti-Iran legislature on Thursday that could influence trade between Tehran and Boeing as well as other plane makers such as Airbus, if passed.

Three measures will be discussed by a Financial Services subcommittee, one of which would bar the Treasury secretary from authorizing transactions by Washington.

Another one would require the department not to license a sale of the planes to Iran announced last month

A third measure could prohibit the Export-Import Bank from financing any entity engaged in business with Tehran or any other one that provides financing to another entity to facilitate transactions with it.

The measures are part of the Republican lawmakers’ attempts to hamper efforts by the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama, engaged in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

"I am extremely concerned that by relaxing the rules, the Obama administration has allowed US companies to be complicit in weaponizing the Iranian(s)," Representative Bill Huizenga, the chairman of the Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee, said in a statement.

The legislature was likely to be approved although no vote had yet been scheduled, according to a House committee aide.

According to a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between IranAir and Boeing, a total of 80 aircraft will be sold and a further 29 will be leased with Boeing's support.

After a deal, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was clinched between Iran and the world powers in Vienna on July 14, 2015, the Republican-weighted US Congress spared no efforts to dismantle it but was faced with resistance from Obama.

Obama is expected to block the latest measure by the Congress, both chambers of which are under the GOP dominance.

A Boeing executive said last month that the White House considers implementation of JCPOA as "critical" for the United States national security.